WEEKEND EDITION- Advocates Try to Protect Recess for Kids, Difficult People to Work With, Alexa Replicates Dead Grandmother’s Voice

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For quite a while now, employees have been able to call the shots as the labor market remained tight.  They could job hop and get higher wages too.  Well now, the balance of power is shifting back to the employer and workers with high hopes for raises in the coming year may be disappointed.  Companies are adjusting budgets for salaries, and it doesn’t look like it is keeping up with inflation or expectations.  Matt Boyle, senior reporter at Bloomberg News, joins us for what to expect.   Next, where have all the coupons gone? As high inflation continues to hit us, many are looking for deals anywhere they can, but paper coupons and even digital ones are harder to come by.  Circulation is down and redemption rates have also plummeted as people just don’t have the time to sort them all and smartphones have made other shopping incentives possible.  Lydia DePillis, economy reporter at the NY Times, joins us for what to know.   Finally, as the workplace landscapes have changed with remote work and others starting different jobs, many have been using their cell phones instead of old business lines and caller ID has been outing people.  Because caller ID is linked to the main account holder, many young professionals are being outed as still being on their parents’ phone plane.  Lindsay Ellis, careers reporter at the WSJ joins us for more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The clothing industry is the last trillion-dollar sector that hasn’t been fully automated.  Many apparel makers have also been hesitant to talk about automation because of the ramifications and possible loss of jobs.  Still, there is a quiet effort underway to develop machines that can automate some parts of jeans factories and hopefully bring more manufacturing back from overseas.  Tim Aeppel, reporter at Reuters, joins us for how robots are coming for your blue jeans.   Next, as more of Gen Z enters the workplace and communications increasingly happen online and in text formats, something is getting lost in translation.  Older colleges are having a hard time keeping up with Gen Z’s use of emojis, slang, and even punctuation. Danielle Abril, “Tech at Work” writer at for the Washington Post, joins us for how workplace language is changing with younger employees.   Finally, when is a bumblebee a fish?  When a unanimous ruling by a California state appeals court deems it so.  Public-interest groups had asked the state to include four types of bumblebees on its list of endangered species, but the 50-year-old law only applied to birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, or reptiles.  Because the legal definition of a fish was vague and had been used to include other animals in separate instances, the bee was added to the list. Matt Grossman, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for the legal wrangling it took to get there.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder and former CEO of crypto company FTX, has been arrested in the Bahamas and charged by federal officials with eight counts of fraud, conspiracy, campaign finance law violations and money laundering.  He is being accused of funneling customer money into his hedge fund to make investments and loans to himself.  About $8 billion in client funds have gone missing with only $1 billion being recovered.  The difficulty there is that there was no adequate record-keeping as it was found out the multibillion-dollar company was using QuickBooks.  Dan Primack, business editor at Axios, joins us for what to know.   Next, a significant breakthrough when it comes to fusion energy, something that could one-day provide us with unlimited clean power.  Researchers at the National Ignition Facility were able to achieve what is called ignition, getting more energy out of a reaction than what they put in.  The team fired 192 laser beams at a small fuel pellet and produced a small amount of net gain energy.  While this is an important step in proof-of-concept of the science, it is still a long time away from being a commercially viable energy source.  The lasers and equipment used would have to be drastically upgraded to produce more energy.  Umair Irfan, senior correspondent at Vox, joins us for this fusion energy breakthrough.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The labor market remains tight, and employers still need workers to fill their ranks.  In order to speed up the process, some companies are dropping a once crucial step: the interview.  Places like UPS, Home Depot, and The Gap are dropping it for mostly hourly positions and in places with high turnover and warehousing.  Some are offering jobs 25 minutes after applying and others are making offers 24-48 hours after applying.  After exhausting other methods to attract workers, some are going with speed.  Sarah Chaney Cambon, labor economics reporter at the WSJ, joins us for what to know.   Next, the condiment business is hyper competitive and one of the major players in the spice game, McCormick, has been making acquisitions to take over the world of hot sauce.  They bought Frank's Red Hot and Cholula Hot Sauce in deals worth millions of dollars each.  The past few years have proven to be beneficial for McCormick as many people stayed in and cooked more at home, but they were not immune to supply chain issues that affected the industry when it came to acquiring key ingredients.  Austin Carr, features writer at Bloomberg BusinessWeek, joins us for the fight for hot sauce supremacy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.